Thirsty Crow grabs AIBA gold

MICROBREWER Thirsty Crow Brewery won the trophy for champion hybrid beer at the Australian International Beer Awards (AIBA). The Wagga, NSW-based brewery qualified for the category after taking gold for its vanilla milk stout.

Thirsty Crow's red light ale also won a bronze medal in the reduced alcohol category at AIBA, which had competitors from across Asia Pacific and entries from as far as Belgium and the United States.

Commenting on Thirst Crow's win, owner-brewer Craig Wealands, who also entered his Heferweisan in the German wheat beer category, said the wins "prove we're world-class venue."

This year, over a thousand different brews were entered into the competition across 17 different awards. The judging panel is composed of 44 industry experts.